Two Peas in a Bucket

Behind the Scenes: April

In April there was a lot of talk and chatter about our digital store and news.  All of the last minute final decisions and perfecting of designs.  There was preparation for National Scrapbook Day.  And there was a fun project night with the girls where we worked on our own Project Life albums, collage journals, mini books and more.  Oh, and there was snacking.  Lots of snacking.  

Behind the Scenes: March

A glimpse behind the scenes this month.  We love coming to work every day.  So many exciting things in store for April - stay tuned!  Happy weekend!

p.s. Check out our HUGE digital sale!  It's your last chance to scoop up many of these kits at Two Peas.

Behind the Scenes: February

A glance behind the scenes this month at Two Peas headquarters.  Even some of these snapshots have a little of this month's love theme infused in them. :)  If you'd like to see more from the Two Peas team, check out our Valentines Facebook album!

p.s. The wait is over!  New products from your favorite designers and brands like Amy Tangerine, Dear Lizzy, Maggie Holmes + more here. Happy shopping!

Behind the Scenes: January

A few snippets from around here lately.  We like to doodle, snack, surround ourselves with puppies and stare at pretty product.  Happy Wednesday, friends.

p.s.  TONS of new product added to the store this week!  Check them out here.

 

CHA Winter '13 Designer Interviews: Amy Tan

How would you like to hear about the new Yes, Please! collection from the girl behind the collection herself? Garden Girl and Designer Amy Tan tells us all about the behind-the-scenes design process.

---

Tell us about your upcoming collection: It's called Yes, Please and it might be my favorite collection thus far.

What was the inspiration behind it? I wanted a softer watercolor look than Sketchbook. We wanted to stick with hand drawn elements but incorporate a bit of nature - flowers and trees, with grey details like concrete and pencil lines. 

Where do you look for inspiration? I look at the world around me. It can come from travel (near or far) as well as movies and magazines. But mostly from just experiencing life and connecting with interesting people.

Once you have a concept for a collection, what is the design process like? The development is one of the best parts of my collaboration. I get to work with talented designers at American Crafts who can help hone in on the concepts we most want to convey. Sometimes we come up with too many ideas that it's hard to narrow them down. But it's important to have focus. Every line I have had so far has had cameras. They're so versatile and fresh each time. Oh back to the process. We do these things in random order sometimes, but the color scheme, design elements (like the camera for example), and overall feel have to be determined rather quickly. From there, a style sheet (similar to a mood board) is made from all the inspiration that was gathered. Then we can focus on the products and specific designs. We doodle, paint, and experiment. Then the designers will get on their computers and do their magic.

How do you decide on the name for a line? I like to have a general idea of the name near the beginning of the process, so I just write down what comes to mind. Usually it's left until the end though so we can see how the line has evolved. How do you name the papers? Typically a theme is chosen, and we will try and stick with it. This process is rather time consuming, but I find myself just going with what first came to mind. For example if a paper makes me think of "hope", I wouldn't want to later name it something that differs from that, especially since hope is such an uplifting word.

What is the most rewarding part of developing a collection? Truly it's seeing what crafters do with it. I love to see how many creative interpretations can be made from the same products. 

What is the most challenging? Sometimes we have some great ideas, but because of production issues or pricing, it may not get made. It can be difficult to deal with the fact that these factors are out of our control.

What is your favorite piece from your new release? It's hard to choose just one. Because we are introducing so many brand new products, it's a bit difficult to narrow down. I would say that I love the embroidery template stencil kits as well as the calendar stamp. Oh and the pencil rub ons.

Thanks so much for sharing with us, Amy!

5 Tips for a Fun Holiday Party

We always look forward to our holiday party; Jeff and Kristina are so good to us and put a lot of thought and love and creativitiy into preparing the evening for us!  We didn't want you to miss out on the fun either.  Here is a little behind-the-scenes look, as well as our 5 tips for how to have a fun holiday party (because we're experts!).

1.  Anticipation is half the fun!  Book a reservation at your favorite restaurant.  Make a pretty invite.  Find that fancy dress or argyle sweater vest in the back of your closet and prepare to have a blast.

2.  Surprise your guests with a fun photo corner!  A giant white poster can transform into a polaroid frame.  Speech bubbles, arrows, "Naughty" and "Nice" signs, Santa apparel - they all make fun photo props.  (The "Naughty!" arrow was used quite a bit at our party.)

3.  Stay close to the food.  My guest took 7 mushroom caps.  SEVEN.  We were debating putting some in my purse, but that might have been a little much. 

4. Don't be shy!  Participate in all the silly games your bosses love to host.  We can't promise you won't get laughed at when using your face muscles to move an oreo from your forehead to your mouth, but it will be memorable, we promise.  And you could win prizes!

5.  Don't forget the party favors!  Ours were so graciously stuffed with delicious peppermint bark and handmade journals embellished with washi tape and doodles by Kristina. We are so spoiled.

We hope you enjoyed getting a peek into our holiday party!  

We already can't wait for next year. - Jamie

Altering a Daybook with Kristina

Amy Tan carries around these adorable little books that she is taping things into all the time…. while she was visiting Two Peas in August, she had a fun little daybook that she had embroidered. I so admired this little book. After seeing her in action with her little mini book and traveling pocket of tools, I was driven to grab a little mini daybook for myself.

Her collections with American Crafts include several styles of daybooks. I selected the stitched daybook from her Sketchbook collection. I love the gray chevron overlay on the front cover and all of the brightly colored prints on the inside. The pages inside are varying in shape, sewn in the middle for the binding, creating  all sorts of interesting spaces to create on.

 

I grabbed the nearest new products on my desk-- washi tape and the Sweetest Thing collection from My Minds Eye and started to add to my daybook. I love to take something like this and make it my own, and not always going with what was given to me. I really loved the chevron overlay, and wanted to make sure that I had that exposed. I added die cuts both on top and behind it on the actual cover to give the Daybook some extra dimension. It was really easy. With the product selection limited, and my colors, theme and intentions decided, it took me only a few moments to really get this cover in a sweet spot. Amy went back and forth with me while I was working on this, adding some washi tape, so I can say that Amy helped to create this little bit of happy. 

My intentions with this Daybook are to leave it on the desk in my creative office area here at Two Peas so that I can add things to it all the time just like Amy does. She carries hers with her and adds bits from her travels. I added the title My Name is Happy to this one (with my favorite letter stickers, by Amy Tangerine, naturally) and hope to add all kinds of random happiness to it as I go through the fall season here.

 

I also added a fun row of colorful washi tape to the inside cover, along with one of the beautiful rose pieces from the My Minds Eye collection. 

- Kristina

Amy Tan Visits Two Peas

(Pictured above: A few of Amy's supplies for scrapbooking on the go)

We were thrilled to have the lovely Amy Tan visit the Two Peas office and warehouse!  If you know this designer, you know she loves to travel.  How lucky for us, then, that one of her stops happened to be just a few miles from Two Peas!  Kristina and Amy made plans right away to get together.

They spent some time creating together while discussing all things scrappy in Kristina's office.  Both lovers of washi tape and mini books, they had no problem feeding off one another's creativity.  

While they created I got out my laptop and recorded all of the ideas they had buzzing in their heads.  Such a fun and inspiring atmosphere.  Amy's laughter is contagious.

We loved Amy's trick for traveling light with scrap supplies.  She likes to wrap shipping tags with a handful of tape designs, leaving the rolls at home for less bulk on the go.

Kristina playing with one of Amy's Daybooks - altering the cover.  (We'll be sure to share the result soon!)

We eat lunch together as a team every day; it was fun to have Amy in the mix and join in on the chatter and laughter.  Afterwards there was some roaming in the warehouse - here she is with her Sketchbook line!

And there was some silliness.

Kristina doodling on some packages being sent to the Garden Girls.  That's just a small stack of the many orders going out.  And Amy snuck in some shots of my preggo belly.  Not that it's hard to miss. ;)

A very fun and inspiring day.  We hope you'll visit us again soon, Amy! - Jamie

 

Today at Two Peas:

* A new batch of Garden Girl projects went up!

* There's a new Memory Keeping Monday video tutorial from Lisa | This Old School

* LAST DAY TO ENTER our class spot giveaway for Jen's new workshop "Words Unsaid"

The Two Peas team goes bowling!

Just a few snapshots from a very fun afternoon for the Two Peas gang.  Jeff and Kristina treated us to some seriously yummy junk food and a few games of fun at the bowling alley.  Feeling very lucky to work for people who let us know how very appreciated we are.  And, um, I had the best game of my life and tied with one of the guys on our team.  He was not as thrilled as I was. ;)

 

Today at Two Peas:

* Deal of the Day: 50% off Russell + Hazel products

* A new Personal Shopper is going up!  See it this afternoon here for my Easter product picks.